New Israeli truce proposal given to Hamas

The US president emphasised the new proposal that Israel presented includes “a cessation of hostilities permanently”, one of the sticking points in previous talks. Here’s how he laid out a three-phase plan:

• A first phase lasts six weeks includes a “full and complete ceasefire”, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza; release of a number of captives including women, the elderly and the wounded in exchange for release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. American hostages to be freed at this stage.
• Remains of dead captives will return to their families. Palestinian civilians will return to their homes in neighbourhoods across Gaza, including in the north. Humanitarian assistance will surge with 600 trucks entering Gaza every day. Hundreds of thousands of tents will be distributed by the international community. All that and more will begin immediately.
• A second phase includes an exchange of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, along with a full withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from Gaza.
• The third phase will include commencement of “a major reconstruction plan for Gaza”, and a final return of any remains of captives.

• Biden: Urges Israel, Hamas to take the deal – ‘we can’t lose this moment’

  “As someone who’s had a lifelong commitment to Israel, as the only American president who has ever gone to Israel at a time of war, as someone who just sent the US forces to directly defend Israel when it was attacked by Iran, I ask you to take a step back, think what will happen if this moment is lost,” he said.

  Biden: Israel has proposed a ‘comprehensive new proposal’

  US President Joe Biden says during a speech on the war on Gaza that Israel has put forward a new ceasefire proposal that has been transmitted to Hamas via Qatar.

  “That’s been the focus, a durable end to this war, one that brings all the hostages home, ensures Israel’s security, creates a better day after in Gaza without Hamas in power, and sets the stage for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

  Biden said the new proposal is “a roadmap to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages”.

  “This is truly a decisive moment. Hamas needs to take the deal. It’s time to end this war that they began,” said Biden.

  Egypt extends crackdown on Gaza activism with student arrests

  Egypt has detained several students who were trying to promote pro-Palestinian boycotts of Israeli companies and solidarity campaigns.

  The students are among dozens of people held in connection with protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, some of them detained in October when state-sanctioned rallies spilled over to unauthorised sites, including Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

  According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an independent Cairo-based group, at least 125 people have been arrested since the Gaza war began in October. Ninety-five are still being held in pre-trial detention on charges including membership in a banned group and spreading false news.

  Three students were arrested this month over their attempt to create a group called Students for Palestine, according to Nabeh el-Ganadi, a human rights lawyer. They include Ziad Bassiouny, 22, a student at an arts institute in Giza.

  About 40 members of Egypt’s security forces were deployed to arrest Bassiouny at his apartment on May 9, his mother, Fayza Hendawy, said.

  Neighbourhood in Gaza City hit by new Israeli bombardment

  Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report several people have been killed and others wounded following an Israeli attack in the vicinity of the Salah al-Din Mosque in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in northern Gaza.

  The report comes amid Israel’s announcement earlier it is withdrawing its troops from several areas in northern Gaza after a three-week operation that levelled about 1,000 buildings.

  Residents say the area is now largely unlivable.

  President Biden set to speak on Middle East crisis

  President Joe Biden announced he will deliver remarks on the Middle East amid efforts to jumpstart stalled talks on a ceasefire deal and as Israel pushes into Gaza’s Rafah.

  “Later today, I’ll deliver remarks on the Middle East. Tune in here,” Biden said on X, with a video link to the event. The White House did not give further details or a time.

  More from France’s UN envoy: ‘We want to achieve peace’

  Earlier this week, France President Emmanuel Macron said he’s ready to recognise Palestinian statehood but at a “useful moment”.

  When asked when that moment might be, the country’s UN envoy Nicolas de Rivieri replied that “the question is open”.

  “We want a resumption of a peace process between Palestine and Israel. And at a certain moment, recognising Palestine as a state would be useful to get there. And that’s the objective. It is not to do something symbolic – but to contribute towards a sustainable solution and to have a proper response to the legitimate aspiration of Palestine to statehood.”

  ‘Save us’: Hamas releases audio of female Israeli captive

  Hamas released a recording to pressure Israeli authorities on reaching a ceasefire agreement, this time with the voice of a female Israeli captive.

  “Time is running out, we don’t want to die here,” the unnamed woman, who has been identified by Israeli media as Noa Argamani, 26, can be heard saying.

  “Don’t put our fate in the hands of Netanyahu and the war council.”

  It’s the third recording of Israeli captives released by armed groups in Gaza this week, with Palestinian Islamic Jihad putting out two videos showing another captive Alexander Trufanov, 30.

  Captives in Gaza ‘doomed’, family member quotes security adviser as saying

  A group supporting the captives in Gaza accused the government of making a “conscious and deliberate decision to sacrifice” them, forgoing the Israeli principle it will never leave anyone behind.

  Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel is being held in Gaza, said during a face-to-face meeting with government security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and several families on Thursday they were told the government isn’t prepared to end the war to bring their relatives back.

  “I said, ‘Does that mean that we’re doomed, we’re lost?’ He said, ‘Yes’,” said Dickmann.

  It was the harshest and most difficult meeting with Israeli officials since the war began because it left families hopeless, he added.

  Israel has refused to end the war on Gaza and withdrawal its troops, a key demand by Hamas to release more captives.

  Israel has encroached on 32% of northern Gaza

  Israel has taken over 32 percent of Gaza’s area by “systematically demolishing neighbourhoods” to create a buffer zone and a central axis dividing it, according to Al Jazeera’s Sanad verification unit.

  This doesn’t include the area of the Philadelphi Corridor on Egypt’s border, which Israel declared it had taken control of on Thursday.

  Israeli military downs Hezbollah drone as sirens sound across northern Israel

  The Israeli military says it shot down a drone launched from southern Lebanon over northern Israel.

  Sirens sounded in the coastal city of Acre for the first time since April, when two Hezbollah drones targeted the area. They were also heard in the nearby town of Jadeidi-Makr along with Klil, also in the Upper Galilee.

  The Israeli military added it carried an attack on a building used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon’s Naqoura area, and also targeted an operative with the Lebanese group in Yaroun.

  ‘It should stop now’: France’s UN envoy calls for immediate ceasefire

  Nicolas de Riviere, France’s ambassador to the UN, says his country is “extremely concerned” about the situation in Rafah and in Gaza overall.

  “As President [Emmanuel] Macron said a couple of days ago, there is no safe zone in Gaza right now. So we want a ceasefire. We want no operation in Rafah. We want full humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip,” he told Al Jazeera. “It’s not the case now.”

  De Riviere said France supports an Algerian draft resolution at the UN Security Council that he said proposes “a cessation of hostilities, no operation in Rafah and basically endorsing what the International Court of Justice has been asking for, … which is urging Israel not to do an operation in Rafah and Hamas to release all the hostages”.

  He added that while Hamas is a threat to Israel and the security of Israel is “not negotiable”, international humanitarian law must be respected.

  “What we are witnessing now in Gaza as a whole and in Rafah in particular is an absolutely unacceptable number of civilian victims, and it should stop now.”

  Total 66 million euros ($72m) given to UNRWA this year so far

  The European Commission has released a second tranche of assistance of 25 million euros ($27.1m) for the Palestinian Authority, and another 16 million ($17.4m) for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the Commission said in a statement.

  “This new payment to UNRWA brings to €66 million [$71.7m] the EU’s total development assistance out of the €82 million [$89.03m] for the UN Agency in 2024,” it added.

  Several nations led by the United States in January, mostly Western nations, announced a pause in funding for UNRWA in response to Israeli claims that some agency staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel.

  An investigation led by French former Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna concluded last month that Israel had not provided evidence to support its allegations of UNRWA involvement in the assault.

  Some countries including Sweden and Finland, have since announced they will resume funding for the UN agency.

  Biden to deliver remarks on Middle East: White House

  The announcement from the White House comes Israel pushes into Rafah despite US warnings against a full-scale offensive in the crowded southern Gaza city.

  “In the afternoon, the president will deliver remarks on the Middle East,” the White House said in an updated daily schedule for Biden, without giving further details.

  Images from northern Gaza show ‘ugliness’ of Israeli army actions: Media office

  The statement from the Government Media Office in Gaza comes following the announcement by the Israeli army that it has withdrawn its troops from some parts of northern Gaza.

  “The videos and photos that came out of Jabalia Camp after the occupation army withdrew from it, show the ugliness of the atrocities and crimes committed in Jabalia Camp and the Beit Lahia project, and the extent of the destruction and sabotage it inflicted on citizens’ homes, service facilities, and public facilities,” the media office said.

  “Ambulance and civil defense teams recovered dozens of martyrs throughout the period of the invasion and after the withdrawal, and the search is currently continuing for dozens of missing people among the rubble of homes, shelter centers, schools and hospitals that were not spared from bombing and destruction.”

  The Government Media Office has urged the World Court in Hague and the International Criminal Court to ensure “stopping this aggression and holding the Zionist leaders accountable as war criminals and perpetrators of crimes against humanity”.

  Jordan to host humanitarian conference for Gaza next month: Royal Court

  Jordan will host the international conference on June 11 to work on the humanitarian response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

  The conference will be co-organised in coordination with Egypt and the United Nations, the Jordanian royal court posted on X.

  People killed while sheltering in UN facilities: UNRWA

  The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) agency says it has received “horrific reports” from UNRWA facilities in Jabalia, northern Gaza.

  “Displaced people, including children, reportedly killed and injured sheltering in our school, besieged by [Israeli] tanks. Tents of people sheltering at our school reportedly set on fire by [the Israeli military],” the agency said in a post on X.

  UNRWA also said it received reports of its office being hit and destroyed in air raids, as well bulldozed by Israeli forces.

  ‘Absurd’ to say that Israeli operation in Rafah is limited: Doctor

  Dr Smith tells Al Jazeera that comments by the US State Department that the Israeli army is not conducting a major military operation in Rafah are “absurd”.

  “We’ve had soldiers and tanks now reportedly pushing right over towards the coastline. For the last several weeks, I have watched air strikes, artillery strikes firing onto the shoreline from the Israeli naval warships that are positioned just off the coast,” he said. “There is nothing limited about the Israeli military incursion into Rafah.”

  “We’ve watched over several weeks now a mass exodus of people, the forced displacements of more than 900,000 people out of Rafah fleeing some of the most grotesque and barbaric Israeli violence that we have seen since October of last year,” he added.

  Gaza’s death toll rises

  At least 36,284 Palestinians have been killed and 82,057 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, its Health Ministry says.

  The ministry added that 60 people were killed and 280 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period.

  Hospitals lack basic resources in Gaza: Doctor

  Dr James Smith, an emergency physician from the UK who is working in Gaza, says the health system there is “completely decimated”.

  “What that means is that we lack the basic resources needed to treat infections with first-line antibiotics or to stem bleeding with the most appropriate dressings and so on,” he told Al Jazeera.

  “In addition to the trauma injuries that we’re seeing, we’re receiving every day tens of patients presenting with jaundice, suspected hepatitis, many people who are hungry and dehydrated presenting with really, really serious infections and other medical problems,” he added.

  Smith was originally supposed to be in Gaza for only a two-week mission but now finds himself stranded there.

  “I would say I’m contentedly unable to leave Gaza at the moment,” he said. “I feel that it’s important for us to be here with the people of Gaza and the people of Palestine.”

  “And there are 2 .1 million people who are stranded in Gaza.”

  Israel confirms forces operating in central Rafah

  The Israeli military did not specify in a statement where in central Rafah the operations have been taking place, but previous statements and witness reports have pointed to raids in the Shaboura refugee camp and other sites near the city centre.

  The army said its troops in central Rafah had uncovered Hamas rocket launchers and tunnels and dismantled weapons storage.

  Israel launched its ground assault on the city on May 6 and has mainly been operating in its eastern districts and close to the border with Egypt.

  This week, it also moved into the city’s western district of Tal as-Sultan, where intense clashes with Hamas fighters have been reported by witnesses.

  More than one million Palestinians have fled the city since the assault began, scattering across southern and central Gaza.

  Rafah crossing being closed a ‘real problem’: Blinken

  The humanitarian situation remains dire in Gaza due to combat operations in the south, especially in terms of distributing aid to civilians, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says.

  “Rafah remains closed, and that’s a real problem,” Blinken said during a news conference in Prague. The US is working intensely to address the acute needs of Gaza civilians, he added.

  The Rafah border crossing has been closed since early May after Israeli forces stepped up their military offensive in the area, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians had taken shelter.

  Israel will not be present at France’s annual Eurosatory arms fair

  Israel will not have a stand present at this year’s annual Eurosatory arms and defence industry exhibition in France, said a spokesperson for the organisers, confirming earlier media reports.

  “Following a decision by government authorities, there will not be an Israeli stand at the Eurosatory 2024 salon,” said the spokesperson via email.

  “No further information will be given on this,” added the spokesperson.

  Aid not reaching Gaza’s civilians: UN

  The limited aid that is entering the enclave is not reaching those in need, said the United Nations, calling on Israel to fulfil its legal obligations to ensure aid delivery.

  “The aid that is getting in is not getting to the people, and that’s a major problem,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

  “We continue to insist that Israeli authorities’ obligation under the law to facilitate delivery of aid does not stop at the border,” said Laerke, pointing to Israel’s control of the key Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing on its border.

  Photo of devastation in Jabalia

  As we’ve been reporting, residents of Jabalia are returning to their hometown after Israeli forces’ withdrawal yesterday, only to find much of it ruined.

  A photo posted by the Palestine Red Crescent Society shows one of its ambulances wrecked, stranded in a pile of rubble.

  Rescuers fear bodies are still trapped under the city’s rubble, unable to be reached due to the damaged infrastructure.

  Israeli attack in southern Lebanon kills medic: Report

  Lebanon’s National News Agency is reporting a “hostile” attack in Lebanon’s southern city of Naquora, in conjunction with air raids.

  Hezbollah-linked rescuers said Israel was behind the attack which hit an ambulance, killing one medic and wounding another.

  The attack comes after several drones fired from Lebanon hit the Golan Heights earlier today, causing no injuries, according to Israel’s military.

  After Israeli pullback in northern Gaza, dead bodies stream into Kamal Adwan Hospital

  I’m in front of Kamal Adwan Hospital, which has received dozens of dead bodies from Beit Lahiya, Tall az-Zaatar, and Sheikh Zayed.

  The amount of destruction is huge, as Israeli forces destroyed all the infrastructure and sewage facilities.

  Civilians are trying to reach their houses in order to find anything that is useful and civil defence crews are trying to get to the neighbourhoods in order to recover more dead bodies, but they are struggling because Israeli forces destroyed all the streets and all the infrastructure.

  Sirens blare as drones fired towards northern Israel

  Several explosive drones have hit the Golan Heights, after air sirens went off in the area, according to the Israeli military.

  The drones, which crossed from Lebanon, landed in the Zaura area without causing injuries, said the military, adding that it is “reviewing the incident”.

  The drone strikes came after an earlier projectile launched from Lebanon hit Israel’s northern Metula area, also causing no casualties, reports The Times of Israel.

  Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah have been waging regular cross-border attacks during the war, keeping border communities in each country on high alert.

  Hamas leader says group will not be ‘replaced’

  Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, has maintained that the group will keep its influence even after the war.

  “Those who speak of ‘the day after’ must understand, the Palestinian people won’t have Hamas replaced,” Haniyeh said in a statement.

  “Faced with the prices we paid,” he continued, “a national Palestinian plan must be promoted based on a unified leadership under the framework of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s institutions which will rule both Gaza and the West Bank.”

  Haniyeh also said Hamas has not altered its position on a potential captive-prisoner exchange deal, insisting it must come with a full ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

  Israel will ‘strictly enforce’ restrictions on Spain’s Jerusalem consulate

  Israel has doubled down on planned restrictions to Spain’s Jerusalem consulate, saying they will be “strictly enforced” due to Madrid’s recognition of Palestinian statehood.

  Earlier today, Spain’s foreign minister said it had sent a note to Israel rejecting the restrictions, which include a halt to consular services to Palestinians, and requested they be reversed.

  But Israel will go ahead with the policy and may totally shutter Spain’s consulate if it commits “violations”, Israeli FM Israel Katz said in a post on X.

  “Any connection between the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem and individuals in the Palestinian Authority poses a threat to Israel’s national security and will be completely prohibited,” said Katz.

  Houthis claim missile attack on US carrier in Red Sea

  The missile attack targeted the Eisenhower aircraft carrier, which is currently deployed in the Red Sea, said Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree in a televised statement.

  The strike is retaliation to a series of joint US-UK strikes in three Yemeni provinces that killed at least 16 people, according to Saree.

  We’ll bring you more information on the Red Sea attack as we have it.